Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Analysts

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) has earned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $9.60.

FLO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Flowers Foods from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price target on Flowers Foods from $10.00 to $8.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Flowers Foods from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, May 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Flowers Foods

In related news, CFO Diego Anthony Scaglione acquired 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $7.51 per share, with a total value of $37,550.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer directly owned 194,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,291.80. This represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 7.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Flowers Foods by 34.5% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 15,979 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,000 after purchasing an additional 4,097 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 24.8% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,448,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,808,000 after purchasing an additional 287,578 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 542.5% during the first quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 3,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 2,859 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth LLC TN purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods in the first quarter valued at approximately $158,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 21.1% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,862,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,179,000 after buying an additional 324,229 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO stock opened at $8.62 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $7.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.20. The company has a market cap of $1.83 billion, a PE ratio of 24.64 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Flowers Foods has a 12-month low of $6.80 and a 12-month high of $16.85.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 21st. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 1.38%.The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.800-0.900 EPS. Analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is presently 142.86%.

About Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods, Inc is one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States, offering a variety of fresh bread, buns, rolls, snack cakes and tortillas. Headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, the company operates an extensive network of bakeries and distribution centers that serve retail grocery chains, convenience stores, mass merchandisers and foodservice customers nationwide. Flowers Foods markets its products under well-known brands such as Nature’s Own, Wonder, Dave’s Killer Bread, Mrs.